Hi :)

Hey everyone! I hope you all are enjoying the last bit of summer! Things are going good here. We have been trying to do a lot of finding lately, our teaching pool is kinda low at the moment. We dropped or they dropped us, like 6 people this past week so yeah. But the people that we have left are so strong and so solid! The Lord is truly blessing us right now! We have Susan who came to church last week and said "I am really to be baptized but I don't want to do it today because my kids want to come see" haha, it was so cute. She thought that she was going to get baptized that day! We explained to her that we still need to teach her some more and that it was scheduled for September. We also have this great Brazilian family that we are teaching. they were out of town for most of this week they went to Washington DC and they are going to stop by the temple visitor center. and we started teaching another girl from China a few weeks ago, she is awesome! We started teaching her a week or two ago but just recently she has really started to progress. It is so amazing when you can start to see the gospel working with someone. You can see their countenance start to change and get lighter and lighter. Its is one of my favorite things about sharing the gospel. you can really see the difference it make in the lives of those you teach. I Love it! Well I got to go, I hope everyone is doing well. --Sister Cox

Awesome Week!

Hey, everyone! How are you doing? I hope you all are good! Things are going great here! we had a really good week! It was full of ups and downs but it was good! on Friday we had 5 appointments set up and 2 of them we has gotten members to go with us but ALL of them stood us up!! We walked ALL OVER TOWN!!! My body hurt that day and the next and the next! We must have walked like 15 miles, it was a lot. But I know that the Lord blesses his missionaries because so really cool things happened that day toward the end of the day. So we were walking to our 4th appointment of the day and we had to buzz in because its like this huge apartment complex for older people,and of course we didn't get an answer. (by this time we had already walked all over town and we were bummed because we walked all this way and she wasn't even there!) so we decided to go in and use the bathroom and fill our water bottles, so we did that and then we went out of the building a different way that we normally go. all of a sudden Sister Z**** was like "Oh that's Sister Short" a member from the ward. But as we got closer she was like maybe that not her, and she asked what her name was, and it wasn't sister Short, it was a lady name Susan. She was super nice and before we could even say anything she said that she wanted us to come by some time! we were all so surprised! that never happens! We asked her if right then was a good time and she said that it was a great time so we went up and taught her part of the first lesson right then. during the lesson the spirit was so strong, she kept saying she felt like she wanted to cry and that she felt so much better now that we came to talk with her. we set her with a baptism date right then in that lesson! It was amazing! i have never experienced that before, we talked with her, taught her a lesson, and set a baptism date all with in a hour! it was so awesome! then on the way home for dinner we met this amazing Brazilian family that said that they were looking for a Church. A complete family! those are hard to come by in the down town Ithaca area, let alone a family that wants to be taught! all of them came to Church yesterday and I am so excited to see how they will progress! I will keep you posted, Love you guys! Sister Cox

First Baptism

Hey everyone! How is every one? I hope you are all doing great! This week has been good, a little rocky, but good. It is hard to get used to the three person dynamic, but I love both my companions and it has been going better. we had a baptism this week! my first baptism! our investigator Amanda got baptised this week! the baptism went awesome! the spirit was so strong though the whole thing. She bore her testimony after she had gotten baptized and I loved it. Her testimony was so strong. I want all my converts to have a strong testimony of the gospel and a love for the scriptures like she does.
Another exciting thing was that yesterday at church and new girl just moved in to the branch ( we are getting a lot of new branch members because Cornell is about to start fall semester) and she brought her roommate who is not a member to church! she from China! haha. We talked with her and they invited us over for dinner yesterday and we started teaching her. She is soooooooooo Golden!!! She has all the right questions and its like she was just searching for the gospel. Its the ideal situation! Both of her roommates are members of the branch and they are like automatic fellowshipers! It is so awesome to see how the Lord prepares these people before we even meet them, putting them in the right situations and the right time to make the gospel available to them. I am really looking forward to teaching her and maybe we will have two baptisms this transfer! You never know! Thanks everyone for all that you do and all of you support. I will keep you posted, Love ya, Sister Cox

Threesome = Funsome (actual title of her e-mail)

Hi everyone! How are you all doing? Any exciting news? Is it still hot there? It has been cooler here the past few weeks. So we have started a new transfer!! Woohoo! We have a new sister with us her name is Sister Goettsche. she is from Denver Co. She is sooooo much fun. I love being in a three-some so far. It has been great! We laugh a lot and get alot more things done. its nice to have three people to share the work, its not as stressful that way :) But the nice thing is that we all get along really really well. we are looking forward to a baptism this Saturday! I hope that all goes well, she needs to get a second interview. So we are all holding our breath and hoping that everything works out for Saturday. I am pretty sure it will, I will be super sad if it dosent, but I think it will. not much else to report, we have been doing a lot of finding this past week. we dont have like any very solid investigators and we are just out there trying to find them! I know that the Lord will help us, he already has. we have picked up 3 new people this week. we have only met with them once but they all seem to have potential. The problem that we have run it here is that people are willing to hear us and they like what we say but they are not willing to act. they are not willing to pray, read and keep commitments. They say oh I know I need to change but they don't! grrrrrr some times its frustrating. I just want them to have some kind of desire to learn and live the gospel. sometimes it seems like they have no desire to do anything whatsoever! Anyway, I know that there are people here that are prepared and ready to receive and live the gospel and that the Lord will help us to find them. I am so blessed to be able to serve the Lord and to serve here in NY. I am learning and growing everyday, I love it. I hope that all of you are having a good week. Love Sister Cox

One Transfer Down...

(Sister Cox didn't say who these pictures are of. But, I think the top one is of her current district and the bottom one is of her MTC district.)

Hey everyone! How are you doing? Things are going great here! Another week as gone by so fast! and I have made it through my first transfer. I am no longer the newest missionary out! woohoo! so we found out on sat. that my companion and I are staying in the area! and we are getting another sister! So there will now be three of us walking the streets of *****. I am excited, but I do have some mixed feelings about it. we will just have to see how it goes... but the new sister get here tomorrow. We also did exchange this week! it was fun to go out with a different companion and in a different area. I learned a lot, by watching the other sisters, I have realized that everyone does missionary work in there own unique way. it was really cool. not much new stuff to report on. we are still teaching Amanda and preparing her for baptism. Its coming up, its a week from this sat! and we are still teaching Frosty, he said we wants to go to church this week so we will see if he comes. right now we are trying to increase our teaching pool because now that we have a threesome we can do splits with members. we have been trying to check up with a lot of potentials. we haven't found many solid people yet but I am sure the Lord will help us find those who are ready and searching. I hope all of you are doing well and having a fun summer!
Love, Sister Cox